Cultural Mobility and the Occurrence of Coronary Heart Disease

Abstract

Data from a study of coronary heart disease in 6 counties of northeastern North Dakota were examined to determine how certain socio-cultural variables relate to the incidence of this disease. Information on all cases of coronary heart disease occurring in this area in a 1-year period in white men age 35 and over was compared to information from an age-matched sample of white men free of this disease and representative of the population from which the cases emerged. It was found that subjects of urban American background had a ratio of observed to expected number of cases 3 times that for subjects of rural or urban European background. While white-collar workers in general had a higher ratio than blue-collar or agricultural workers, white-collar workers of rural background had a ratio 2 to 3 times higher than agricultural or blue-collar workers of rural background. It was found that geographically mobile subjects had a ratio twice that of geographically stable subjects; occu-pationally mobile men had a ratio 3 times higher than that of occupa-tionally stable men. These socio-cultural factors were related to coronary heart disease independently of such other factors as diet, weight, blood pressure, smoking, and parental longevity. These findings were conceptualized to refer to generational, career, residential, and situational mobility. It was suggested that cultural mobility was a concept common to these forms of mobility which was associated with the occurrence of coronary heart disease in this population.